


Circus' aren't the Best Place for Birds

by pknote



Series: Out of the Robin's Nest [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Field Trip, Gen, Haly's Circus, I didn't want Collin to be a jerk, Minor generic character who's a jerk, Scars, so i didn't put him in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 17:39:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7811113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pknote/pseuds/pknote
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haly’s Circus was once again back in Gotham, it had been almost 5 years since they had received a large sum of money in order to keep open and travelling around the world. Every visit since the tragic death of the ‘Flying Graysons’, Haly, the owner, would make sure to have the circus open to any children, whether is be for a field trip or to get them off the streets. In honor of John and Mary Grayson.</p><p>On this particular day, Gotham Academy was attending the circus. And a very annoyed Damian Wayne was forced by his father to go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Circus' aren't the Best Place for Birds

Haly’s Circus was once again back in Gotham, it had been almost 5 years since they had received a large sum of money in order to keep open and travelling around the world. Every visit since the tragic death of the ‘Flying Graysons’, Haly, the owner, would make sure to have the circus open to any children, whether is be for a field trip or to get them off the streets. In honor of John and Mary Grayson.

On this particular day, Gotham Academy, was attending the circus. And a very annoyed Damian Wayne was forced by his father to go.  
*************

“You need to spend more time with kids your age Damian”

“I don’t need to do anything of the sort! And what is a circus going to prove? That the simpletons of the school, you forced me to go to, can be entertained by nothing but party tricks?”

“Damian, you’re going on this fieldtrip end of story.”  
************

Damian hated all of his classmates in the first place, they knew nothing in comparison to him, not to mention that Damian had gotten so good at answering the problems given to him in less than 10 seconds that the teachers had stopped calling on him after the first week of school. He had even been banned from the only class he enjoyed by the second day, after trying to render a classmate unconscious while playing badminton.

This thirteen year old was trained to know everything to a college level, to be distant, to be the ultimate assassin. And he was stuck going to a circus with a bunch of children his age, who actually acted like it.

“Damian, are you listening?!” One of his classmates spoke, someone who considered Damian his friend but not the other way around.

“What do you want Bishop?”

“First, stop calling me Bishop, the name’s Charlie. Second, have you ever been to the circus before?”

Damian just groaned, leaning his head up against the cold window of the school bus. “No Bishop, but I’ve heard plenty about it from my brothers.”

“You’re going to love this then!”

“Why, is that? It’s just a pointless endeavor to make people who don’t have any other qualities survive.”

“You like animals don’t you? There’s elephants and a lion tamer”

“Held against their will no doubt.”

“Fine! If you find this whole thing pointless and a waste of time I challenge you to some of the games they have.”

“Fine. When I win, you stop talking to me.”

“And when I win, you have to eat lunch with my group and do our homework for a month.”

With a strong shake of their hands, Damian sulked off the bus, walking around the busy carnival grounds, stopping outside of the big top tent, a familiar flash of red and green caught his eye, as he glanced towards the trapeze he sighed, it was just two acrobats getting ready for their performance.

In such an open and crowded place like this it was easy for Damian to become uneasy and nervous, any second a villain could attack, and he’d have nowhere to run, nowhere was defendable enough to cause a sense of security for the boy. Although he felt the panic he refused to show it, keeping his cold exterior as the boy he had challenged earlier came up to him pointing at a ring toss game.

“That one.”

Damian smirked, with his abilities and training this was going to be a piece of cake. “Whatever, let’s just get this over and done with Bishop.”

The boy, seemingly so proud of himself waltzed over to the booth, grabbing the five rings that were given to him, Damian groaned after a minute of standing at the booth, waiting as he slowly threw the rings. Three landing on the neck of a bottle.

“Beat that, Wayne.”

“You say that like it’s an insult.”

“I bet you’re no better than your father, so it is.”

Damian’s eyes narrowed, giving Charlie Bishop the stare that his father used on villains more often than not. “You’d be surprised what father can do” he growled under his breath, before stepping up and taking the rings. 

“What was that Wayne?”

Damian stayed silent, looking over the rings before holding them, split between two hands. Holding them out wide, he gave one last deadly glare at his challenger and company. Giving a slight laugh before flicking his wrists inward, the rings flying simultaneously and each one finding a place on a bottle’s neck. “Let’s see, that’s 1,2,3,4… 5 rings!” Damian snickered, “In 5 seconds.” 

“No way! You cheated!”

“Deal’s a deal, Bishop.”

The boy gave a surprised and hurt expression before running off with his group. “You’re a jerk, Wayne.” he growled, stopping to hold position, "You should join this freak show, after all you don't belong in Gotham, not your kind."

Damian turned around after accepting his prize, a large plastic sword. “What did you say about me?” his voice was harsher and colder than it usually was, this boy crossed a line. With a swift movement Damian was ontop of him, pinning him down with one arm and holding a knife to his throat with the other, having discarded the play sword. “Are you saying I should be a part of the circus because of my skin color? Because of my accent?”

“Yes!”

Damian growled, pressing the weapon into the soft flesh of the larger boy’s neck, “The principal will hear about this Bishop, As will my ‘useless’ father, whom if I’m correct has a contract with your family, along with your entire gang.” With a flick of his wrist the knife disappeared again, and Damian got up off of the boy. “Now if you’ll excuse me.”

And Damian was gone, leaving the remaining boys shaking in fear. It didn’t take much to scare a 7th grader.  
*************

“Ladies and Gentlemen, the moment you have all been waiting for! 15 years after the tragic deaths of the Flying Graysons, please welcome back to the trapeze in his single debut.”

/No/

“Richard Grayson!”

A cheer erupted from the stands, the tent filled with children were cheering, shouting in glee as the lean man stood nearly 30 feet up on a platform waving to the crowd, Damian was the single person in the crowd refusing to stand. But Dick, he was smiling, happy to be back on the stage.

“And as always, without the safety of a net.”

“Grayson!” Damian shouted watching as his adopted brother jumped off of the platform, Damian knew Grayson could do this, he did way worse every single day of being Nightwing. The acrobat never left that man. And yet Damian was scared for him, he had heard the stories, seen the nightmares that plagued him, even after so many years. One moment of panic, one slip up, and Nightwing, no Grayson would be dead.

The members of his class took his shout of warning as the boy finally joining in on the cheering, one of the classmates elbowing Damian in the ribs with a smile upon her face. But it quickly fell when she saw Damian’s expression, a mix of his fear and annoyance. Pushing his way out of the center of his class and loosening his uniform tie, in order to give him some room to breath.

Damian walked as close to the ring as he could without stepping into the actual area. Watching his brother ‘fly’ above the ground. It was simply amazing, He’d seen Nightwing work, he worked alongside him practically from the start. His heart skipped a beat as Grayson let go of the bar, flipping through the air only to land delicately on the platform on the other side. Smiling and waving at the audience.

It was over.

Damian just stood there, stunned as he watched Grayson climb down, the other members of the audience leaving the tent, along with many of the performers.

“Hey Dickie, There’s a kid still in the tent, can you go talk to him?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah.” Dick smiled at the member of the circus troupe, one of the contortionists. Whom the former had meet as a child. After looking around Dick’s eyes landed on the boy which he needed to get out of the tent, a smile on his face.

“Hey little D!”

Damian was finally snapped out of his trance.

“How’d you like the show?”

“It was… satisfactory.”

“Oh come on Babybat~ I know you liked it.” As Dick spoke he began to ruffle the younger’s hair. Making it more spiky than it was in the first place.

“What was the point of asking if you already knew?”

“It’s the polite thing to do. Stay here, I’m going to go see if I can give you and your friends a special tour.”

“My friends?” Before Damian had the chance to finish his sentence his eldest brother was already gone, leaving Damian to turn around and see these ‘friends’ Dick spoke of, children who’d walked up behind him as he spoke to his brother.

“You spoke to Richard Grayson!”

“That’s so cool!”

Damian squinted curling his expression into a scowl. As he turned back around, finding Grayson speaking with the Ringmaster, from what he could read in their expressions, the conversation was going well. A net was being put up underneath the trapeze.

Okay, too well.

Before Dick came back Damian hadn’t even noticed the change in subject that his classmates were talking about, now they were goggling over him, a few even trying to ask him questions, though it was clear that he wasn’t listening.

“Alright! We’ve got permission, If you’ll all follow me!”

Damian reluctantly followed alongside his brother, the older chatting happily about everything in the circus, as they walked the grounds many children joined in the tour, a couple adult chaperones following along in the back, making sure they knew where their groups were.

“What do you have planned, Grayson?” Damian growled, looking up at the older.

“You wound me, Damian. Can’t I just take my baby bro on a tour of where I used to live?”

Damian gave Dick a skeptical eye.

“What? I don’t have anything planned that you wouldn’t agree with!”

“So you did plan something.”

“Of course, Little D.”

The tour seemed to be coming to an end by the time the two had finished talking, Dick had lead the large group from the animal cages back to the big top, lights were shining on the trapeze.

“Alright everybody, this is the last of our tour, I’ll be teaching one lucky person how to swing on the trapeze!”

There was an uproar from all the children, courses of hands shooting up into the air, a bellow of ‘pick me pick me’ s only caused Dick to laugh. So much that he almost missed Damian slipping out of the crowd, “How about you there?!”

Damian stopped dead in his tracks, giving Dick his best ‘You’re dead’ glare. “No thank you.”

“Oh, come on don’t be a spoil sport, Kid.”

Before Damian could bolt the acrobat had picked him up, Damian was shrieking and struggling to be let go, as Dick scaled up the ladder to the platform, where he finally set the kid down. 

“I’m not a child, Grayson.”

“I know that, Dami. But don’t pretend you didn’t pull a knife on that classmate.”

“He teased me.”

Dick sighed, “Oh, Babybat.” He put his hands on the shoulders of the boy, to everyone below, it looked like he was reassuring a scared kid. “Even though, that is no way to react.”

“I didn’t hurt him!”

“You could have got caught! Let me see the knife.” Damian growled, pulling the weapon from his ankle holster, It had a little ‘R’ carved into the side of the handle. “You could have gave all of us away with your recklessness.”

“I could have said it stood for ‘Richard’”

“It’s the robin insignia, everyone in Gotham knows that symbol.” 

Damian looked down, “Don’t tell Father.”

Dick gave a smile, “I won’t, as long as you do this for me, and make it a show!”

Damian nodded, watching as Dick grabbed onto the swinging bar, the younger stowed away the knife and gave a slight grin as his brother leaped off of the platform, flipping from one bar to the second, in an extravagant, but slightly shaky landing he was on the opposing platform, looking across at Damian, holding up a number on his fingers. This caused a smirk from the boy, Dick wanted to use an attack maneuver to show off, figures.

With a deep breath the two both jumped at the same time, in synchronization, and beautiful symmetry as they swung, next thing that they knew, Dick was hanging upside down, ankles hooked onto the bar and arms extended towards Damian.

“Just jump, I’ll catch you.”

“Don’t patronize me, Grayson.” 

For a split second Damian could see how Dick’s nightmares haunted him in his dreams but not on the rooftops, you had to depend on someone else to catch you, and if you fell, or lost your grip, it was done.

“Robin, jump.”

And release, he was staring intently at Grayson throughout the whole experience, forgetting about the people below, forgetting about the net, forgetting that he was Damian Wayne, son of Bruce Wayne and not Robin

“ ‘You could have gave us all away with your recklessness’ “ Damian teased, though it was clear the boy was happy.

“Shut it, or I’ll drop you.”

Damian laughed, it was all fun and games until you got dropped 20 feet. He yelped as he felt Dick’s hands leave his wrists, instinctively, he reached for the grappling hook in his utility belt, which was not present at the current moment. Before he could react in any other way he hit the net, the landing was a little rough, but he didn’t go splat on the ground, that was a huge bonus. Damian’s heart was pounding in his chest. 

“GRAYSON!”

“I did warn you.” Spoke the elder, who had dropped into the net not long after Damian had recovered.

Damian got out of the net and up on his feet before Dick could capture him into a hug. 

“Don’t even think about it, Grayson.”

Damian looked up, it was oddly quiet in the room since the two had gotten down, Dick was wearing a body fitting leotard, but it wasn’t the older the kids were looking at, it was Damian.

“What are you looking at?!”

“Damian, fix your shirt.”

“My what?” Damian looked down, his shirt was riding up quite a lot, anyone behind could see the scar from his spine reconstruction, and front and center, due to the side falling over his shoulder, the scar from when he was stabbed and killed by Heretic. Along with the thousands of others he had received for various reasons. Damian was quick to fix his shirt, but it was already too late. Everyone had seen, the children had mixed opinions, but the parents were all shocked. Sure he could explain the scar trailing his spinal cord but all the others, there weren’t enough medical procedures in the book to explain them all.

A moment of weakness, Damian grabbed his chest, It never hurt him when his family saw his scars, they all had them, but civilians, children his age, oddly enough, it felt completely different. It showed weakness, weakness that was supposedly bred out of him.

“Grayson, call father.”

“Alright, Babybat. Do you want me to come with?”

“No.”

Without looking back, Damian took off running, Running towards the fancy charter bus to get his bag and then out once again. He had never recovered the blazer he’d been wearing, and the loose fitting shirt flapped around behind him, everyone could see a few of the scars, especially the ones on his arms. Although he’d never admit it, tears were beginning to well in his eyes, with a ball in his throat making it hard to swallow, and the pain that was weakness. And he couldn’t even ease it. He fell, fell on the ground cowering in fetal position, tears flowing from his eyes. People were gathered around, just staring until they were ushered away by various circus performers.

As soon as Damian could think clearly again, he heard playful shrieks of “OH MY GOD IT’S NIGHTWING!”, “Why does he get to be picked up by Nightwing? I can cry too.” That last one brought Damian back to his senses, although he didn’t struggle when he saw the masked vigilante pick him up. Actually Damian was glad that his brother didn’t listen when he said not to follow him. He needed his embrace.

“Gray-”

“I’ll bring you to my tent, you can get changed in there.”

Damian grunted in response to the older’s whispers, clinging onto his bag. When Nightwing set Damian down there was still quite a few people around, though they were all circus performers, seemingly used to Nightwing dropping kids off at Dick Grayson’s tent. 

“Wait for your brother in there kid.”

“Thanks.”

“If you see Robin, let him know to meet me on the Bridge.”

“Cutting it a bit close.”

Nightwing laughed, waving to Damian as he darted off, swinging off of an oil lamp post and out into the nightfall. 

Damian looked down, letting his arm holding the backpack relax and swing to be parallel with his legs. As soon as Nightwing was out of his view he walked into Dick’s tent, throwing off his shirt and shoving it into the bag as soon as he pulled out his Robin costume. He was soon changed completely, sitting on the small cot as he laced up his boots. Suddenly a voice came from outside of the tent, it was the Bishop kid. 

Damian’s chest pounded again.

“Hey, Wayne. Can we come in? Mr. Haly said you were dropped off here by Nightwing.”

Damian looked around frantically, searching for his mask to no avail, quickly turning away from the door and flipping up his hood. Rummaging through the backpack until he found the mask at the bottom. The kid came in as soon as he had the mask on his face.

“Robin?! First Nightwing, now you! Is something going on with that Wayne kid?”

Robin turned around, glaring at the kid.

“Where did Damian go anyway? Didn’t Nightwing bring him here.”

Damian simply rolled his eyes, “He was picked up.” The kid looked skeptically at Robin, before seemingly scanning every part of the tent, that showed any sign that Damian was still there. 

He was still wandering around when the com-link buzzed to life in his ear. “Yo, Babybat, what’s taking you so long.”

“Got held up, there’s a child here looking for Damian Wayne.”

There was a vague sound of confirmation from the vigilante through the com. “Meet in crime alley, Red Robin has some intel on a recent perp.”

“We’re on a secure line you can tell me the information, Nightwing.” Robin rolled his eyes, his classmate finally left the tent, which gave Damian a chance to leave, standing outside of the tent and grappling off into the night. 

To crime alley.  
*************

“How was your trip to the circus, Damian.” Bruce Wayne spoke, watching as his oldest and youngest sons came up from the bat cave.

“It was, /eventful/, Father.” Damian muttered, as he strode into the room, being joined shortly by Titus and Alfred (the cat), petting the loyal Great Dane on the head and scratching the salt and pepper colored cat under his chin, Damian sat down on an arm chair in the room.

“I’m glad.”

“Though it would have been helpful for a forewarning that Grayson was going to be in the act.”

Bruce looked over at Nightwing, confusion on his face. 

“Haly said I could come back if I wanted to.”

“Will you be travelling with them again?”

“And leave you and Little D?” Dick scoffed, “No way, B. Gotham’s my home as much as the circus is.”

Damian looked up from the book he had immediately started reading when he sat down, a slight smile on his face as Grayson spoke.

“Oh, yes. About the circus.” Bruce’s tone fell a couple octaves. “You played it very close today Damian.”

“Grayson made me go on the trapeze!”

“You’re not in trouble Damian. When the teachers call I’ll explain all your scars, and the panic attack.”

Damian looked down, “It wasn’t a panic attack Father, I- I was scared!”

“That’s not like you-”

“Well, obviously! Or we wouldn’t be talking about this!” Damian snapped, causing his dog to react and look up at him. Damian made eye contact with Titus for a minute before he jumped up and stormed away. 

“That was a bit harsh, B… If he was willingly showing the scars, that’d be different… But it was an accident!” Dick shouted as soon as Damian was out of earshot. “You make the kid walk around in tight fitting, very conservative, clothing! He’s always wearing under armor unless he’s at school. Are you so afraid of the everyday gothamites seeing his scars, you don’t even let the kid out of your or our sight, Bruce.”

“He goes to school.”

“Where you can monitor his every move!” Dick groaned, “Damian isn’t a child, Bruce. He’s a warrior, an assassin, he used to love every single one of those scars on his body, that only changed when you made him hide them.”

“You know I never meant it like that.”

“He doesn’t. He’s not just your son, Bruce. He’s a bat, he’s Robin. Don’t you think it’s about time you start treating him as more than something that needs to be protected.”


End file.
